KATHMANDU, JULY 5

Obstruction of parliamentary proceedings by opposition lawmakers has led to the invalidation of anti-usury ordinance that the president had issued on May 3. The ordinance had amended some provisions of the Muluki Criminal Code criminalising loan sharking.

As per the constitutional provision, any ordinance which is not adopted by the Parliament within 60 days, ipso facto ceases to be effective.

The government had brought the ordinance after hundreds of loan-shark victims gathered in Kathmandu and protested for weeks. The government had brought a replacement bill which was supposed to be passed today, but the bill could not be passed due to obstruction of House proceedings.

The ordinance, which had been passed by the National Assembly, was listed for business in the HoR today.

Assistant Spokesperson for the Parliament Secretariat Dasharath Dhamala said the HoR had plan to pass the anti-usury bill today and send it to the NA with its message following which the bill was supposed to reach the president for authentication.

Dhamala said the government had not changed anything in the replacement bill. It had registered the anti-loan shark bill only on June 20, almost one month after the ordinance was issued. Dhamala added that the government should have calculated the time required to pass a bill and should have registered the bill immediately after the ordinance was issued by the president.

If the replacement bill is passed in the next meeting, it will still be a law but before that there will be a vacuum as the ordinance has ipso facto become ineffective.

The ordinance prohibited improper transactions, proposing a jail term up to seven years and a fine of Rs 70,000 on loan sharks.

As per the ordinance if anybody is found to have made a loan deed for which the lender has not actually given loan, or if anybody inflates the loan amount, or counts interest as principal amount, or refuses to give receipt of payment and seeks more interest than the principal amount, that will be deemed improper transaction.

A version of this article appears in the print on July 6, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.